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Ruffus, too, was physician to Cleopatra; but more reliable authorities place him as late as the reign of Trajan.

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Aretaus of Cappadocia* appears to have been educated at Alexandria, or at least to have resided in Egypt. For, in treating of cynanche, a disease of which he has furnished an admirable description, he dwells upon the climate and modes of living there, as more likely to give rise to this disease than the climate or modes of life in Colosyria. The period at which he wrote is uncertain. Some have placed him prior to the reign of Augustus, and others after the time of Galen. There has been as much discrepancy among critics concerning the sect to which he belonged, as concerning his place of residence or the period at which he flourished. Aretæus is one of the most original and elegant writers of antiquity. For truth and accuracy of description, some have even placed him above Hippocrates. There is perhaps no modern writer to whom he can be more aptly compared than Heberden. He appears to have written at that period of life when the mind, tempered and enriched by ample experience, is more disposed to rely upon personal observation than on the teaching of the schools, and to pay little regard to theories unsupported by the revelations of nature. Starting with a thorough acquaintance with the science of his day, taking Hippocrates as his model, and repudiating all futile speculations, he details the simple results

Aretei Cappadocis Opera Omnia (Kuhn's edition), Lipsiæ, 1828.

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of his own experience, in a systematic treatise of eight books on the history and treatment of acute and chronic diseases, and in a manner so striking and appropriate as rarely to have been excelled. His descriptions of marasmus, of phthisis, of angina, of asthma, and of mania,, are frequently referred to as true to nature, and of poetic finish. Yet, he himself acknowledges his inability to paint to his own satisfaction, the ever-varying shades of disease; and advises every young physician to study for himself, and not to trust for all his knowledge to the commentaries of his instructors. In his practice he employs but few remedies, and never the monstrous compositions so much in vogue among the Romans. He makes frequent use of evacuants. Emetics, purgatives, and venesection, are his main agents in the management of acute diseases; in these also relying much on regimen, and on cooling and refreshing drinks. But in the management of chronic diseases, his practice is more diversified. His surgical is in keeping with his medical ability. He was the first, so far as I remember, to use the trephine for the cure of epilepsy. He employs catheterism in mechanical obstructions of the urethra, resulting from vesical calculus; for the removal of the stone, he recommends perineal section, by an incision immediately below the scrotum, and extending inward to the neck of the bladder until the urine and calculus escape. He employs the actual cautery for opening hepatic abscess, and cauterizes the scalp in certain diseases of the head. Besides his treatise on acute and chronic diseases, of

which the first four chapters of the first book are lost, he was the author of works on surgery, on fevers, on the diseases of females, and on the preparation of medicines; all of which have perished.

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Marcellus, of Sida, in Pamphilia, was the author of a medical poem in forty-two books, in which he described a strange malady called Lycanthropia, a species of mania, in which those affected growled aloud like wolves, and during the night wandered at large in lonely places, and among the tombs; and in which the most aggravated period of the attack was usually in the spring time. Marcellus flourished about, or just prior to, the time of Galen,* and is quoted by Oribasiust and Aëtius.‡

Having ventured beyond the limits of the capital, we may remark that many of the physicians who taught or practiced there, had been educated in Asia Minor, in the cities of which were many flourishing though now forgotten schools. The names of several distinguished Roman professors, were associated with Ephesus. Among these was Magnus, a writer on the pulse, and the inventor of theriaca after the manner of Heras and Andromachus. Of this same school were the anatomist Ruffus, and the second as well as the third Soranus.

The school of Pergamus, to which we have already on more than one occasion alluded, was still a flourishing institution, and the theater of a long list of able teachers. At the head of this school in the

* In the Biograph. Médicale he is placed under Adrian and Marcus Aurelius.

Synopsis, lib. v. cap. x, p. 266.

Tetr. ii. serm. ii. c. xi. col. 254.

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early part of the first century, was Quintus, a consummate anatomist, and the ablest physician of his time. Though not mentioned as a writer, he was followed by several able disciples, as Lycus of Macedon, Marinus, Pelops, Numisianus, and Satyrius; of all of whom Galen speaks in admiration,-of Marinus, as the author of an elaborate treatise on anatomy; and of the others, as his own preceptors. He further informs us, that at the Asclepion of this city, built by Costunius Rufinus, the friend and coadjutor of his preceptor Satyrius,t the pupils were in daily attendance upon the sick, studying their diseases at the bed-side, and acquiring such chance acquaintance with the organization of the human body as could be obtained from witnessing the surgical operations and. dissections of their instructor. Even after Galen's time, this school maintained its early celebrity; and we are told that the emperor, Caracalla, visited the city expressly for obtaining the advice of its professors.

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CLAUDIUS GALEN,* the prince of physicians, was born at Pergamus, A. D., 131; and, under the judicious care of his father, Nico, received every advantage of early education at his native place. At the age of seventeen, he was placed as a student at the Asclepion of Pergamus, under Satyrius, the pupil and successor of Quintus; and in the course of his studies had the advantage of instruction from. Stratonicus, a Hippocratic rationalist, and from Æschrion, an empiric. On the death of his father, Galen, now twenty-one years of age, removed to Smyrna to continue his medical studies under Pelops, another pupil of Quintus; and to pursue the study of Platonic philosophy under Albinus. He next retired to Corinth, there to become the pupil and assistant of Normiscianus, also a former pupil of Quintus; and subsequently, he traveled through

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* Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, Kuhn's edition, 20 vols. 8vo. See the Historia Literaria prefixed to this edition, from the pen of Ackermann; see, also, Sprengel; the article Galien in the Biographie Médicale; the article Galen in the Dictionary of Classical Biography; and a cursory analysis of the works of Galen, so far as they relate to Anatomy and Physiology, by J. Kidd, M. D., in the Transactions of the Provincial Med. and Surg. Association, vol. vi. p. 301.

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